Neven Subotic announces his departure from Dortmund

After weeks of speculation about his fate at Borussia Dortmund, Neven Subotic has put the debate to rest. Earlier today, Neven Subotic posted this update on his facebook page:

Liebe Freunde,

im letzten Jahr habe ich gemerkt, dass meine Liebe zum Fußball und einer aktiven Rolle auf dem Platz zu groß ist, um das Geschehen nur von außen betrachten zu dürfen. Fußball ist ein wichtiger Baustein meines Lebens, den ich sehr liebe und ohne den ich nicht sein möchte.

Ich bin jetzt gerade im besten Fußballer-Alter und möchte natürlich diese Zeit nutzen um mich und meinen Verein jeden Tag nach vorne zu bringen. Und das Gefühl zu haben auf dem Platz gebraucht zu werden, alles für meinen Verein geben zu können.

Darüber mache ich mir gerade meine Gedanken.

Ich möchte mein Geld nicht auf der Bank verdienen, sondern ein aktiver Teil einer Geschichte zu sein wie ich es bis zum letzten Jahr war.

Ich hoffe Ihr könnt das nachvollziehen und verstehen.

Der BVB ist mein Herzensverein und wird es immer bleiben.

Euer Neven

And the Translation:

Dear friends,

In the last year I’ve come to realize that my love for football and a spot on the field is far to large, to be watching from the outside. Football is an important building block of my life, I very much love it and I do not want to be without it.

I'm in the best footballers-age and, of course, I want to use to bring forward myself and the club. And the feeling to be needed on the field and to give my everything for the club.

This is what I’m currently thinking about.

I do not want to earn my money sitting on the bench, but rather want to be an active part of our history, as I was prior to this year.

I hope you can understand that.

BVB is my heart club and will always remain so.

Your Neven

It was well documented that Neven Subotic was unhappy with the amount of playing time that he was receiving under Thomas Tuchel. He was really never given enough chances to cement himself in the starting lineup; a task which is hard to do when you have to compete with Sokratis and Mats Hummels.

Even with the departure of Mats Hummels, Subotic is rather low on the depth chart. The signing of Marc Bartra and the transition of Sven Bender to centre-back made it vastly unlikely that Subotic’s situation would improve. Subotic recognized this and has decided that he would rather play somewhere else consistently than play sporadically off the bench.

Despite Neven’s desire to move on, he has made it clear that Dortmund is his true home. Neven will always hold BVB close to his heart. Even though his time at the club didn’t necessarily end with a bang, I have a feeling that BVB fans will do the same for him.